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GIFT, in law, a transferring the pro

perty in a thing from one to another without a valuable consideration; for to transfer any thing upon a valuable consideration is a contract or sale. He who gives any thing is called the donor, and he to whom is given is called the donee. By the common law, all chattels, real or personal, may be granted or given without deed, except in some special cases, and a free gift is good without a consideration, if not to defraud creditors. But no leases, estates, or interests, either of freehold or term of years, or any uncertain interest, not being copyhold or customary interest of, in, to, or out of any messuages, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, shall at any time be assigned, granted, or surrendered, unless it be by deed or note in writing, signed by the party so assigning, granting, or surrendering the same, or their agents, thereunto lawfully authorized by writing, or by act and operation of law. 29 Car. I. c. 3. A gift of any thing without a consideration, is good, but it is revocable before delivery to the donee of the thing given.

GILBERTIA, in botany, a genus of the Decandria Monogynia class and order. Calyx five-toothed; corolla deeply fiveparted; nectary deeply ten-parted, with lanceolate segments; antheræ sessile, in the segments of the nectary; fruit sixcelled. Only one species. G. racemosa, found in Peru; branches reddish and Jowny; leaves alternate, elliptic, acute, entire, reddish, downy underneath; racemes axillary.

GIL

GILD, or GUILD. See GUILD.

GILDING, art of. The art of gilding, or of laying a thin superficial coating of metal on wood, metal, and other substances, has been long practised and highly esteemed, both for its utility, and the splendid effect which it produces. Gold, from the extreme beauty of its colour, and from the length of time during which it may be exposed to the action of the air without tarnishing, is perhaps the most valuable of all substances for the purpose of decoration; but on account of its dearness and weight, it can very seldom be employed in substance, and its ornamental use would be limited, indeed, if it were not at the same time the most extensible of all substances; so that a given weight of gold, notwithstanding its high specific gravity, may, by beating, be made to cover a larger surface than an equal quantity of any other body. Among the ancients, the Romans, and, among the moderns, the French have been remarkable for their large and profuse consumption of gold; not only the temples, theatres, and other public building, being adorned with gilding, but even the private houses of the wealthier classes.

The materials for gilding, or rather the different states in which gold is used for the purpose, are the following: leafgold of different thicknesses, and formed either of the pure metal, or of an alloy of this with silver, amalgam of gold, and gold-powder. The leaf-gold is procured by the gilder from the gold-beater, for an account of which we shall refer the